The Village of Hope drop in centre was established in 2005 by Apostle Surprise Sithole, a missionary called Larry and a team of local pastors, who saw a great need in the community to fight against poverty which leads to hunger. The VoH drop in center is a feeding program that provides hot meals to families and vulnerable children who cannot afford enough food to sustain them. In our community most children only eat one meal a day provided to them at school and the only way for them and their family to have a nutricious dinner is to come and receive it from the Village of Hope feeding program. We also provide aftercare to these families by providing them a safe space with extra food to take home depending on availability of donations. We currently receive a donation of vegetables every two weeks from a generous donor, but as we have a growing number of families to feed every day it is not enough. Village of Hope currently feeds around 50-100 children per day and we aim to be able to feed many many more. We have started our own garden to meet the growing need, but as we are running on very limited donations it sometimes means that we are not able to provide for everyone.
The VoH drop in center is not only feeding the community but it’s empowering young people who find themselves at home without work or finances to gain higher education and training through the following projects:
- Entrepreneurship
The Centre provides training through our skilled volunteers who are ready and willing to empower our youth with the knowledge of how to come up with lucrative business ideas and turn those into comprehensive business models and create self-employment. Through the last two months we have already trained a group of 15 young people who have already taken the first steps of their journey into the business world. - Baking
The baking initiative was the first of its kind in our community. It aims to empower our youth with the skills of baking so they can start venturing in the business of sweet treats and other baked goods. This has already been a huge success even with it being one of our newest projects. It has opened a market in our community that was not previously there and is proving to be very fruitful. - Music Lessons
We are so blessed to have so many people within our community that are musically gifted. They are now working with us to provide music lessons to young people in our community. We thank God that currently we have 4 young people enrolled in this project that are learning instruments such as guitar and piano. - Farming
We are so excited to have kick-started a farming project which aims to create employment, encourage healthy eating and self-sustainability. Farming involves volunteers that are an integral part of this project that will be helping to feed our community and meet some of their physical needs. -
Sewing and Beadwork Project
This is also one of our newer projects that we are just geting off the ground. The sewing and beadwork project aims to train young people into making jewellery and African print merchandise that can be sold locally and internationally, especially to our tourists.Each of our ministry projects aim to provide economic empowerment to the youth and young adults of our community who are the next generation of leaders, entrepreneurs and visionaries. Our goal is to empower these young people to have usable skills and be trained in these areas so they can excel in the sphere of influence the Lord gives them.
Thank you so much for your prayers and support !
May God bless you even more.